Author: Wendi

Side Dishes, South Beach Diet, Vegetables

Eat Fresh

by WendiLeave a Comment on Eat Fresh

Fresh Picked

The following originally appeared on 5/13/09 at Exit 51.

Eat Fresh

Advertising executives may want you to believe that eating fresh means patronizing a certain fast food chain.  To me, it’s something entirely different.  My definition of eating fresh is cutting down, as much as possible, the  journey fruits and vegetables take from the grower to my plate.  Since I’ve come to peace with the fact that I will never be the house in the neighborhood that has a killer vegetable garden, I am eager to find an alternative.  See those beautiful spears of asparagus?  That was my first attempt.

I should preface all this by saying that there was a distinct lack of fresh vegetables in my house as a child.  We ate vegetables, but they came out of either a can or a bag and were destined to be boiled down into unappetizing mush on the stove.  Tomatoes were the exception.  There was always a  plate of  fresh (from the grocery store) tomatoes in the house.  My grandmother would work wonders with even the toughest, driest  tomatoes turning them into blt’s or frying them up in her cast iron skillet until the crust was perfectly browned and crisp.  Those were some of the best summer breakfasts.

So I grew up thinking that asparagus was mushy and tinny and came with an overabundance of sodium.  It has only been as an adult that I’ve discovered the true nature of the spears.  And thanks to the folks at the farm stand, I now know what asparagus aspires to be.  Having just been picked the day before I bought them, these spears still had life.  They were firm and strong, breaking with a clear snap.  The tips, usually the first place to show signs of  having been sitting around for a while, were tight and unbruised.  And the color?  It just screamed fresh.

Best of all was the taste.  The folks at the farm stand, who did the growing, assured me that I would taste a difference.  The only word I can come up with to describe what they tasted like is ‘green’.  It was like I was tasting Spring.  Bright and clean.

Now that’s eating fresh.

Pan Roasted Asparagus

This is our favorite way to fix asparagus (and string beans).  If you don’t have an indoor grill pan, use a large nonstick skillet.  This would also work well on a grill.  Just be sure to lay the spears perpendicular to the grill grates, skewer them together to make an asparagus raft, or use a grill basket.

  • Fresh asparagus, rinsed and stems trimmed
  • Olive oil
  • Kosher salt
  • Lemon zest

Lightly oil a nonstick grill pan, using either a silicon basting brush or paper towel to get a thin coat of oil.  Preheat pan over medium high flame.  Add asparagus and a big pinch of kosher salt.  Turn asparagus with tongs as they cook.  The color will turn bright green and the spears will begin to soften.  Dress with freshly grated lemon zest.

Uncategorized

Why We Cook, Part 2

by Wendi16 Comments on Why We Cook, Part 2

It’s been nearly a year since I wrote my Why We Cook post.  And it seems as though this journey is about to come full circle.  It’s essentially been a year of borrowed time that looks to be coming to an end. But I once again have an opportunity to be present in person and let the Universe guide me to where I need to be, when I need to be there.

The notion of preparing what could be my father’s last birthday dinner is heartbreaking.  But it’s also a gift, an opportunity to celebrate him while he’s here to witness it.  I fear that I may not find any words and hope that the act of simply being there and giving of myself in the one way that I truly know how will be enough.

I am getting on a plane today but I can’t say how long the final steps on this journey will take.  Or how long it will be before I find my way back into the kitchen once it is over.  To steal a line from my post last year…There are still new posts scheduled to go live here at BAH for a while, as well as all of the Exit 51 archives on Flashback Friday.  And I hope to be back soon to cooking and writing and commenting and following along with your adventures.  Until then, Bon Appetit Hon.

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If It Ain’t Broke

by Wendi1 Comment on If It Ain’t Broke

The following originally appeared on 5/18/09 at Exit 51.

If It Ain’t Broke

I’m particular about all sorts of things.  From the way the dishwasher is loaded to which tshirts get folded and which get hung.  Basically, I like things the way I like them.  SFC can attest to that.   And when I’m forced to make a change, I get all out of sorts.  We’ve been in our house for three years and I’m just finally starting to get beyond the fact that my jeans have to be hung instead of being neatly folded and stacked.  That’s the downside of living in a small house that lacks closet space.

I guess you could say I subscribe to the notion of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.  New Coke?  I didn’t believe for one minute that it was just as good as Old Coke.  You’d think that the Coke folks would have learned from that fiasco, and yet now they have Coke Zero. Really, what the heck were you thinking?  If you have to spend millions of dollars in advertising to get me to believe that Coke Zero tastes the same as regular Coke, then clearly your product isn’t what you claim it is.  Move on and take that black labeled abomination with you.  I’ll stick to my happy red can, thank you very much.

But what about when I love a product and it suddenly disappears?  No warning, just gone.  I’m talking to you Starbucks.  First, you got me hooked on your After Coffee Mints.

sbmints1

More powerful than a “curiously strong” Altoid, smaller than a Tic-Tac, it was the perfect mint.  Ok sure, you redesigned the container along the way and that didn’t sit too well at first.  But I stuck with you.  And I even learned to appreciate the beauty of the redesign.  No longer would the bottom of my purse be filled with wayward linty mints because the tin opened wide and said “ahhhh”.  And it was even easier to get my mint fix while driving because the new tin let me shake them out one or two at a time.  No more fumbling around trying to get my fingers in the case and not knock mints in my lap or under the seat.  Yes, I came to see the beauty of the redesign.

Then you took it away. And what did you give me instead?  You gave me this.

sbmintscan1

And you really expect me to believe that these horse pills you call Classic Mints are comparable to my petite After Coffee Mints?  As if.  First of all, these things are ginormous.  After being conditioned to your ACM, this is like shoving a hockey puck in my mouth.  Second, they taste nothing alike.  The ACM packed a wallop of pure peppermint flavor.  The CM?  I might as well be sucking on a Starlight Mint.  Guess which one lists peppermint oil and menthol as ingredients and which one  just says natural and artificial flavors?  And by your own Nutrition Facts, 1 of the ACM counts as a serving (with 100 servings to a container) while it takes 3 of the CM (at only 10 servings per container).  So you’ve locked me into paying more and getting less.  Oh you’re clever all right.

But don’t go thinking that I will blindly follow you down this path.  You can keep your Classic Mints with its obscenely large tin that spills mints everywhere once you slide the top back.  As a point of information, this is not at all user friendly.

See, I’ve still got a few of those lovely After Coffee Mint tins.  And I think they are the perfect size to hold your competitor’s mini-Altoids.  At least those folks know that when something works, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Uncategorized

Flashback Friday – Mary Had A Little Lamb

by Wendi11 Comments on Flashback Friday – Mary Had A Little Lamb

Flashback Friday

The following originally appeared on 8/26/08 at Exit 51.

Mary Had A Little Lamb

Lamb is one of those ingredients that I have no luck with.  I don’t know if it’s the taste or the texture or that I’m just not preparing it right but I have yet to fix lamb at home and rave about it.  Not that I’m a quitter or anything but I don’t think lamb is my thing.  I’ve tried twice. Twice I’ve been disappointed. Continue reading “Flashback Friday – Mary Had A Little Lamb” →

Main Course

Semi Homemade

by Wendi9 Comments on Semi Homemade

semi-homemade-collage

The following originally appeared on 5/20/09 at Exit 51.

Semi Homemade

I don’t understand people’s obsession with homemade tomato sauce.  Never have.  When I make sauce from scratch, I end up feeling that my time has been wasted and I should have just opened a jar instead.  Especially meat sauce.  For years, and I do mean many years, I convinced myself that I could not make meat sauce.  Because even when I started with jarred sauce and added ground beef, the results were dismal. Instead of being velvety and rich, I would end up with a greasy, thick sauce that had big chunks of tough ground beef.  It was more Sloppy Joe than spaghetti sauce.  Definitely not what I was going for.  And then Cook’s Illustrated showed me the error of my ways.

As it turns out, I was missing a crucial step in the process.  Namely, the food processor.  Not to get too technical, but the reason the ground beef was always tough and dry was that the cooking process squeezed every bit of goodness out of even the chuckiest ground chuck.  The solution was to insulate the ground beef with a mixture of bread and milk, called a panade.  Crazy right?  Here, I’ll let them explain it:

“What is a panade and what do you use it for? A panade is a paste of milk and bread that is typically used to help foods like meatballs and meatloaf hold their shape and moisture. Starches from the bread absorb liquid from the milk to form a gel that coats and lubricates the protein molecules in the meat, much in the same way as fat, keeping them moist and preventing them from linking together to form a tough matrix. Mixing the beef and panade in a food processor helps to ensure that the starch is well dispersed so that all the meat reaps its benefits.”

Sure enough, the addition of milk and bread to the ground beef worked like magic.   I began making the most fantastic meat sauce, even with really lean (93%) ground beef.  Incroyable!!

Yes, this method does require you to get the food processor dirty.  But I promise you, it will be worth it.  And once you master the technique, don’t be surprised if you find yourself making double batches so that you have sauce waiting at your beck and call in the freezer.

Like I said, I don’t understand all the to do over homemade sauce.  Being utterly shameless, I am perfectly happy to take a jarred sauce that I like and tinker with it.  If Sandra Lee can build an entire career out of the Semi Homemade approach, I can certainly use the philosophy so that my whole wheat ziti is not sitting naked on the plate.

Semi Homemade Meat Sauce

Science courtesy of Cook’s Illustrated

  • 2 jars spaghetti sauce
  • 1 pound lean ground beef (85% to 93% should work well)
  • 1 slice white bread, torn into quarters
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 shallot (optional)

Put shallot, bread, and milk into food processor and pulse until paste forms.  The milk and bread will combine completely and stick to the sides of the food processor work bowl.  If your panade is on the dry side, add more milk a teaspoon at a time until the paste forms.

Add the ground beef and pulse until the mixture is well combined.  It will look mushy and pasty, that’s ok.

Heat a dutch oven or large saucepan over medium-high heat and add groundbeef.  Cook, breaking meat into small pieces with a wooden spoon or spatula, until beef loses its raw color, anywhere from 2 to 4 minutes (or slightly more) just make sure that meat does not brown.

Stir in the spaghetti sauce, cover, and gently simmer 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, for flavors to combine.  Add salt, pepper, and any other herbs to taste.  If you have some balsamic vinegar or red wine, consider adding a bit to the sauce as it simmers.

Serve with your favorite pasta and freeze the leftover sauce, that is if you can keep yourself from sopping it all up with chunks of hearty bread.

Appetizers, Main Course, South Beach Diet

Rushed

by Wendi10 Comments on Rushed

Mustard Roasted Shrimp

The following originally appeared on 5/27/09 at Exit 51.

Rushed

Despite my best efforts to the contrary, there are just days when time is not on my side.  I’ve got too much to do and not enough time to get it done.  Or cosmic forces conspire against me and suck huge chunks of time out of my grasping hands, never to be seen again.  A trip to the grocery store that should take 30 minutes turns into an hour.  Too bad life doesn’t come with rollover minutes, like in the AT&T commercial.  I’d definitely pay for that upgrade.

The problem with poor time management is that something ultimately suffers.  You cut corners, trying to wedge a square peg into a round hole, and the end result isn’t exactly the right fit.  It will do in a pinch but you know you could do better.  That’s how I feel about Mustard Roasted Shrimp.

The clock was already ticking when I set out to make the shrimp.  Dinner had to be done and I had to be out the door in little more than an hour.  So the notion of marinating the shrimp in mustard, olive oil, and tarragon for an hour in the fridge was immediately dismissed.  And soaking bamboo skewers so that the shrimp could be  broiled?  That would have to wait for another day.  These need to be in the oven NOW.

Did you ever notice that when you’re trying to hurry, even the simplest tasks get complicated?  Like peeling shrimp.  Sure, the package says EZ Peel but should it really take twenty minutes to peel two pounds of large shrimp?  In tv land there would be an assistant to instantly transform them into peeled and cleaned morsels.  In my kitchen, there’s just the cat sitting there looking mildly interested in me dropping one of those morsels on the floor.

By now, my hour is down to about 40 minutes.  Sorry shrimp but the best I can offer you at this point is a short stay in the marinade out on the counter.  The oven gets heated, sheet pans get prepped, and the timer ticks down to less than 30 minutes.

Finally, the shrimp go in the oven.  At this point, I stop looking at the clock.  It will take as long as it takes and since my superpower to stop time has yet to develop, clock watching isn’t going to do me any good.  As soon as I start to smell the aroma of hot mustard, it’s time to turn the shrimp over.  Tick-tock, tick-tock, I can’t turn the clock in my head off.

At last the shrimp is bright pink and the mustard marinade is just starting to brown on the sheet pans; time to come out of the oven.  Sprinkle a quick pinch of salt and onto the plate we go.  In the five minutes or so that I have to actually eat, I keep thinking how this is ok but it could be so much better.  Each bite mocks me with flat flavor.  Even the next day, the leftovers lay there on the plate, not living up to their full potential because of me.

I take full responsibility.  I rushed what could have been a very good thing.

Broiled Shrimp with Mustard and Tarragon

Adapted from Bon Appetit: Fast, Easy, Fresh

  • 1/3 cup dijon mustard
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 green onion, minced
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh tarragon
  • 1 1/2 pounds raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 8 wood skewers, soaked for 30 minutes

Whisk first four ingredients in a medium bowl to combine.  Add shrimp; toss to coat.  Chill 1 to 3 hours.

Heat broiler and line sheet pan with foil.  Thread shrimp onto skewers.  Season with salt and pepper.

Broil shrimp until cooked through, approximately 2 minutes per side.

BAH Note: I’m including the comments from the original post as well.

on 2 June 2009 at 6:13 pm missmobtown said:
I blame Bon Appetit — labeling something as “fast, easy, fresh” when it needs to sit for an hour? Or three? Come ON.

on 3 June 2009 at 7:04 am pmf1852 said:
Indeed, not the quickest meal in the book. We made it again last weekend. Oddly enough, letting it sit longer really didn’t make it taste much different. I think the key is to definitely cook it with high heat. I may have to get over my fear of the broiler and see if that turns up the flavor.

on 27 July 2009 at 8:28 pm Lara said:
Ok, I tried this tonight and both my husband and I thought it was very good but the flavor almost overpowering. Next time I will use less mustard and perhaps half of the marinade recipe. A good make ahead and a great little appy!

on 28 July 2009 at 6:59 am Wendi said:
Would you say it’s a happy appy? Definitely play around with the ingredients to get the taste you like best.

Random

Flashback Friday – Goal Tending

by Wendi6 Comments on Flashback Friday – Goal Tending

Flashback Friday

The following originally appeared on 8/25/08 at Exit 51

Goal Tending

I refuse to come out and say how much weight I hope to lose on South Beach.  The idea of being fixated on a number is not how I want to live.  Why should I turn a choice to eat healthier into a numbers game?  The scale should be a tool, not a dreaded frenemy. Continue reading “Flashback Friday – Goal Tending” →

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RealiTV

by Wendi4 Comments on RealiTV

reality-tv-2008-large-msg-120000952483

The following originally appeared on 6/1/09 at Exit 51.

RealiTV

It really should come as no surprise that television takes a few liberties with reality.  If you hit pause on your dvr at the end of most any game show or “reality” competition, you will see the fine print that says portions have been edited.  Well duh. But that distortion of reality is a double edged sword.

One the one hand, who would sit through the unedited hours and hours of footage that it takes to produce a single episode of Survivor or The Amazing Race?  Not me.  But on the other hand, how can we know what happens in the moments that we don’t see?  There’s the rub.  We are given a highly processed view of “reality” that may be skewed in order to shape our perceptions and attitudes.  There’s another word for that – propaganda.  I doubt that the television producers have a sinister masterplan to take over the world via the current season of The Bachelor.  But they definitely are trying to manipulate our opinions to make “better” television.

No genre of television program is immune to the edit.  Not even something as supposedly straight forward as a cooking show.  Think about it, how often do you see Paula Deen or Rachel Ray commit a kitchen foul?  Take a few moments to ponder that?  The Minimalist has an interesting piece about that topic here.

Is it that their skills are so keen that they don’t make mistakes?  Are they the “Heroes” of the kitchen world?  Or is it that their reputations are built upon the assumption that we suspend our disbelief that they are anything but flawless?  If we don’t see any mistakes, then they never happened, right?

Interestingly enough, cooking programs excel in showing us the other side of that picture.  If you stick around to watch to watch the “Who Wants To Be…” type shows, you see another kind of reality.  You see the kind of reality that you can not only understand, but can relate to.  Challenge after challenge, something goes wrong.  Meat gets burned, dishes are undercooked, or overcooked, jars break, people cut themselves.  Some mistakes you can bounce back from.  Other send you home.  Unfortunately, these realities are edited to make us think the contestants are not capable.  When really, they are just human.

So what should we take away from this idea of RealiTV?  At a minimum, we shouldn’t take it too seriously.  Take it as inspiration for what you love to do.  So if you love diy projects, watch the shows to get ideas.  But don’t think that because Ty and his crew can build a McMansion in seven days that you are somehow deficient if it takes you a month to tile your backsplash.  And if your love is cooking, watch the shows for the recipes.  Just don’t assume that your plate of deep fried butter is going to look exactly like Paula’s.  Remember, she’s got a producer, and editor, professional lighting and fancy food stylists.  You’ve got reality and I think that tastes better any day.

Chicken, Main Course

Real Simple

by Wendi14 Comments on Real Simple

Real Simple

The following appeared on 6/3/09 at Exit 51.

Real Simple

I love the idea of leading a simple life.  I just wish I could figure out how to go about doing that.  If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.  Sure, there is an entire industry of lifestyle guides and magazines that want you to think that if you buy their products then your life can be as perfect as their glossy magazine photos.  Call me a cynic, but I don’t buy into that. I don’t see how stimulating the economy by buying their stuff is going to change my life.  In a recent moment of ‘what the heck was I thinking’ I grabbed one of those magazines while I was in line at the grocery store.  The only thing I saved was a recipe.

The one area where I do find ways to simplify is cooking.  Because until I learn the secrets to lead the simple life, cooking is the one thing that must be flexible, to fit into my schedule instead of making my schedule accommodate it.  Occasionally, let’s call it rarely, I will go all out on a dish that requires constant tending and fussing.  But I don’t really enjoy that.  It’s no fun for me to stand at the stove counting minutes.  I’d rather set it, and forget it.

So it should be no surprise that I tend to gravitate towards recipes that don’t chain me to the stove.  Especially when the temperatures soar into the 90’s and our entire house turns into an oven, like it did recently.  Despite the ungodly heat, I fired up the oven to 400 degrees for a real simple dinner.  And then I promptly stationed myself on the sofa where I could pretend that the hot air coming from the fan was in fact a delightful spring breeze.  What can I say, sometimes the simple life ain’t so simple.

What is pretty simple, though, is this recipe for Maple Roasted Chicken.  Instead of cut up chicken parts, I used thighs only.  And even though I removed the skin from half of them, there was still a lot of accumulated juices.  Next time, I will make sure all my chicken is naked because all that juice made the sweet potatoes too mushy.  But I bet when we go to eat the leftovers, the defatted juices will make a lovely jus.  How simple is that?

Real Simple Maple Roasted Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

From Real Simple Magazine

  • 2 small sweet potatoes, cut into 1 inch chunks
  • 1 onion, cut into 1 inch wedges
  • 6 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 1/2 to 4 pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces
  • 3 tablespoons maple syrup

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Place sweet potatoes, thyme, and onion in a 9×13 baking dish.  Coat with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Pat chicken pieces dry, season with salt and pepper, and place in the baking dish.

Drizzle the maple syrup over chicken and vegetables.

Roast 55 to 65 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

Random

Flashback Friday – Amazing Race (Maryland State Fair)

by Wendi6 Comments on Flashback Friday – Amazing Race (Maryland State Fair)

Flashback Friday

 

The following originally appeared on 8/22/08 at Exit 51.

Amazing Race (Maryland State Fair)

Sometimes in this life you gotta think on your feet.  By nature, I’m a planner.  I like to know how I’m going to get from Point A to Point B in advance.  When I plot out a route, I pretty much commit to it and dislike last minute change of plans.  This is one reason I would not do well on The Amazing Race.  You know the premise.  Put people in situations where they must overcome a series of detours and road blocks to reach their final destination.  The last to arrive face Philimination.  In the most unlikely of settings, I ran my very own Amazing Race – Maryland State Fair Style. Continue reading “Flashback Friday – Amazing Race (Maryland State Fair)” →